If the battle of ideals were played out truthfully in front of the public, liberals would lose.

From the NYT, a key player in the destruction of Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork speaks truth to power [emphasis mine]:

It is, to be sure, completely understandable that the Democrats wanted to keep Bork off the court. Lewis Powell, the great moderate, was stepping down, which would be leaving the court evenly divided between conservatives and liberals. There was tremendous fear that if Bork were confirmed, he would swing the court to the conservatives and important liberal victories would be overturned — starting with Roe v. Wade.

But liberals couldn’t just come out and say that. “If this were carried out as an internal Senate debate,” Ann Lewis, the Democratic activist, would later acknowledge, “we would have deep and thoughtful discussions about the Constitution, and then we would lose.” So, instead, the Democrats sought to portray Bork as “a right-wing loony,” to use a phrase in a memo written by the Advocacy Institute, a liberal lobby group.

And so began the take-no-prisoners politics of destruction we’re left with today. Can’t have a truthful conversation, so let’s make that Republican out to be as mean and loony as can be. More:

Conservatives were stunned by the relentlessness — and the essential unfairness — of the attacks. But the truth is that many of the liberals fighting the nomination also knew they were unfair. That same Advocacy Institute memo noted that, “Like it or not, Bork falls (perhaps barely) at the borderline of respectability.” It didn’t matter. He had to be portrayed “as an extreme ideological activist.” The ends were used to justify some truly despicable means.

It’s worked for 24 years. Liberals pander lies about conservatives through their willing accomplice, the media. And once conservatives do speak truth–Bill Ayers, Jeremiah Wright–they’re immediately branded kooks, liars and racists.

3 Responses

The interesting thing is that you could switch “liberal” and “conservative” and still get the same story. Conservatives have demonized liberals so much that the very word has become a negative in their vocabulary. Most of the Republicans I know are currently in hiding – they can’t believe what their party has become.

I hope that we can return soon to a system in which both parties are willing to … gasp … compromise to get something done for the country.

Funny, I don’t know that many Republicans in hiding. Well, save the RINOs.

You fail to understand the basic premise of the argument: liberal politicians and their willing accomplices in the media have knowingly used false information about specific candidates to trash their careers. To Bork, et al. Doesn’t matter if it isn’t true. Go for the smear. Paint ’em as kooks.

Conservatives don’t have to lie about who liberals really are. That’s the beauty of it. Sadly, they’re rarely capable of fighting.

Further, if a liberal admits certain defeat if ideals and values were debated–you know, the truth–then what? Liberals must resort to half-truths and obfuscation.